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toongrrl-blog · 9 months

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Pink Power Rankings, Pt. 3

You’ve (hopefully for me) waited, now you have it. The next chapter of Pink Power Rankings! I had a good time doing Parts One and Two and have been wanting to do Part Three for some time and I needed to look for more pop culture sources involving the color pink. Here I look at moments in TV and Film featuring women and girls (and other feminine presenting folks) moments in the color pink and I analyze if this is a case of pink representing feminine power or vulnerability under a Patriarchal structure.

Spoilers Ahead

Pictured above are the many versions of the Pink Ranger from the Power Rangers series.

Mei Lee

We are gonna take a trip into Chinese Culture, early 2000s fashion, adolescence, and the push and pull between family traditions and honoring your own spirit. Buckle up.

First Red: Mei Mei lives in a multitude of cultures. First she is a Millennial who likes boy bands and soda pop who tries to be a straight A student and proper daughter to her (likely) Boomer elders, she is a Chinese Canadian girl who wakes up find herself as a giant fluffy red panda. Chinese Flag, Chinese Culture, Canadian flag, red pandas, anger, passion, menstruation: what do they have in common? The color red. In Chinese culture, red (along with the complementary yet opposite on the color spectrum, green) is a lucky color; it’s a festive color, the color of beauty, good fortune, vitality, and happiness. Mei is an adorable girl who has a bright future ahead of her and she is a energetic, go-getter who hardly lets things get her down. According to Ericksen Translations, Red in the Western World evokes excitement, love, danger, passion, and anger, Indian cultures consider red to be the color of purity, Latin America can pair red with white for religious connotations, and red is infamously used by totalitarian regimes. That last part is important because Mei Mei is butting heads with her green (another lucky color in Chinese culture, unless you are a man wearing a hat) and blue (the color of sadness and motherhood in Western culture) clad mother, who lacked the community of good friends with different perspectives (or any) and was so bound up in duty and guilt/intergenerational trauma to see that her daughter needs to join in the pursuits of her age group.

This even shows up in how Mei was dressed (and as a testament to the film, showcases the changing seasons in Toronto, coinciding with the themes regarding puberty): she starts the film wearing a red cardigan sweater, a flared skirt, leggings, sneakers, still a hip little girl but cardigans (along with collared shirts) evoke “Classic Fashion”, they evoke an image of British aristocratic women, 1950s housewives and secretaries, D.C. Office Ladies, they transcend time and are safe. TL;DR, they are “Good Girl” clothes, the kind of clothes that don’t make waves (sartorially nor with the status quo).

On the other hand, polo shirts (especially if they were layered), were the it shirt for the 2000s. After Clueless hit theaters in 1995, there was a resurgence in preppy styles, especially for young women, with palettes becoming brighter and brighter. And when we see Mei Mei at the end of the film: we find her in a light pink polo shirt with the latest in Y2K accessories (spot the hair clips, earrings, and choker), showing that she has embraced her own voice and panda and living openly. It’s a good thing her outlook is so bright, she is gonna be one of many Millennials likely affected by the 2008 Recession and the now current COVID-19 pandemic.

Power Ranking: A 10, 24/7, 365!

Monica Lewinsky

Here we will focus on dissecting the serialized interpretation of Monica Lewinsky (as played by exquisite Beanie Feldstein) rather than the real person I simp over; Monica, in real life and in the series based on events in her 20s, is an utterly femme-y woman but pink is not a power color within the series. We see her wear it in loungewear, chatting on the phone with her treacherous friend (the never can be too maligned) Linda Tripp (Sarah Paulson in one of her problematic roles) or in a sleepover scene or as a robe or in a romantic nightie and here, in a scene where she has a tumultuous argument with President Bill Clinton (Clive Owen looking a tad svelte) where they finally break up. One can surmise that Pink is the color of vulnerability for Monica, as it makes her small and easy to take advantage of by an older colleague and lover.

In short: it’s the color of both femininity and vulnerability and we see Linda and First Lady Hillary Clinton wear it themselves in subdued and pastel versions, nodding to their age. But onto Monica and how she could (or could not) fall into the same subued pastels as these women who are contemporaries of her own more youthful and glamorous mother (played by the uber-talented Mira Sorvino); pink for Monica symbolizes her femininity (which she was lampooned for as a bimbo and valley girl), her warmth (a quality that people are surprised to learn she has once meeting her), her beauty (her blessing and a curse, as she diets like crazy), her sexuality (despite the Sexual Revolution, society is still slut-shamey and hasn’t reformed enough for abuse of power to become a thing of the past), and her romantic nature and sadly due to Bill being the ultimate fuck-boy of the late-20th Century, is likely to become the embittered nag (Hillary) or hag (Linda) that is vilified in the media, or rather her ultimate fate as punching bag and sex object.

Monica was in soft pastels for her loungewear outfits but this sweater is a bold, saturated coral pink that matches her emotions. After screaming at secretary Betty Currie (the one and only Rae Dawn Chong), which bad move Monica, she gets Bill to lament how horrible she is (really the whole thing is his damn fault), projecting and using Betty’s history of being a Black woman under Jim Crow to manipulate Monica “a fucking 24 year old” and how he thought she was “a good girl” which earns him a hearty “fuck you!” from her and they decide to break off, her even turning down his pleas to resume after his term is over, but he resolves to help her get the job she wants and she quits the Pentagon for the greener pastures (or rather the lipstick) of Revlon where her intelligence and beauty savvy will be put to work.

Oh girly, you aren’t out of the woods. On a simp-y note: I want to note what costume designer Meredith Markworth-Pollack described Monica as an “innately a sexual woman, she’s flirtatious, she’s sensual, she’s curvy, she’s magnetic”...basically Monica has the same energy as Joan Holloway of Mad Men, another mistreated and sexualized woman who was a victim of her time and place and underestimated as a person and intellect due to her gender. But both women, as Tom and Lorenzo once said: “She took charge of her life and owned her mistakes” when comparing Joan to Liz Taylor (a vivacious dark-haired bombshell who was noted for her sensuality and mocked for her weight) and became producer. *chef’s kiss*

Power Ranking: 5.5 (like a phoenix she will rise out of the ashes).

Eleanor Wong

I love this look, it’s giving Grace Kelly meets Betty Draper Francis’s hidden Italian haute couture side. The chic updo, the jewelry, bejeweled bodice, cinched waistline, full pink tulle skirt, and the long gloves all scream “Mid Century Movie Glamour”. Eleanor showed up with her friend Devi to the Winter Dance stag to support friend Fabiola and her girlfriend Eve’s bid for Winter Dance Royalty. The girls also lament their love life, having broken up with boys before. But Luck be a Lady tonight, for these two ladies in fabulous formal wear. Devi gets to go with her older and popular boyfriend Paxton while Eleanor gets the attentions of Paxton’s dopey friend (they are so cute a couple) and gets to tell Ben, Devi’s entitled ex who always called Devi “David” and competed with her and called the girls the racist, misogynistic moniker of “Unfuckable Nerds” or UN (as Harriyanna Hook once said: “No boy alive who called me ugly was ever hotter than me”). Eleanor gets to tell a heartbroken Ben that Devi did care for him but she and Fabi told him he wasn’t good enough and gave a dismissive apology granted he ends up with Devi but Fab and Eleanor show that if wants her, he gonna have to prove himself.

Good. For. Her.

Power Ranking: 11.

Joyce Prigger

She emerges in a dusty rose suit and a floral blouse with grey-blue and orchid shades, youthful and ready to make an impression. Perhaps while wearing the colors of the gender binary and of power as defined by a patriarchal culture built on hierarchy. Sadly, this ambitious revolutionary has to kiss corporate ass and is failing. “The Matriarchy Awakens” is a clever tagline, but not a magazine title but there is a need for a matriarchy in an era when men can feel free to comment on other women’s bodies and their presentation with little to no consequence, where women are encouraged to diet but them exercising reproductive choice is taboo, where women are gaslighted into being silent about their concerns or wants. So young, Seven Sisters educated Joyce Prigger goes to a magazine convention to shop around her ideas for a feminist magazine that is sadly drier than the Southern California climate after being harassed by construction workers and to tone-deaf corporate heads who still like the idea of women building their whole lives and self-esteem around them.

So another man suggests he can sell her magazine with a crispier, tender title for his pornography publishing business: Minx. She is reluctant (she hasn’t made it to sex positive feminism yet) and walks off the convention getting harassed by the same construction worker and telling him to fuck off.

It’s a start, but articles about marital rape are gonna need pics of hot men in the buff.

Power Ranking: 6.

Kamala Nandiawanda

About four decades later and we meet another young woman who is coping with tone-deaf males in a profession she has ambition for, with the added weight of being a non-European woman in a White Supremacist Patriarchy. Kamala does what her aunt (and what nameless women in male-dominated circles) have done, keep her head down and smile while doing work that she is not getting credit for. And submit to their little games where they make her their video game damsel in distress and have her dress up according to their desires.

At some point she goes to her teenage cousin for help and her teenage cousin Devi (a known hothead) tells her she doesn’t has to take anyone’s shit and that men like her colleagues like seeing Asian Women as submissive and easy to abuse. Kamala eventually threatens her mentor with a lawsuit and going to feminist minded groups and reporting him.

Power Ranking: 5 (this was one of many straws that broke the camel’s back).

Julia Child

In the HBO Max unofficial sequel to Julie and Julia, a film that partially focused on the beginning of Julia Child’s career as the co-author of a popular cookbook that demystified French cooking to ordinary Americans, we meet Julia Child enjoying her new life in Massachusetts and on the heels of the popularity of Mastering the Art of French Cooking as she works on the 2nd addition. As a promotion on public television, she spontaneously fixes an omelette on air in her folksy and comedic style and is offered the opportunity to host her own cooking show. Not a TV owner (much less viewer), she is somewhat skeptical but becomes increasingly enthused and considers hosting her own show despite the skepticism of a few.

Power Ranking: 10, bon appetit!

Robin Buckley

Here is Robin Buckley: in frills she is not accustomed to nor her preference (foisted on her by the more miniscule Nancy Wheeler) with the highly femme outfits constricting her, especially around her neck. Nancy gives the awkward (honestly likely neurodivergent) Robin a script to follow as they try to glean information from a mental institution about one of their patients. Robin, when the interview goes nowhere, Robin goes off script and talks about how no one takes girls seriously and gets them access to their patient.

Power Ranking: 9.5

Suga Mama

“When I’m an old woman, I shall wear purple, with a red hat that doesn’t quite go...”, welp Suga Mama doesn’t need to dress so garish and formal to command attention as a woman over 50. Ever since The Proud Family premiered in 2001, Suga Mama was a hip granny and a force to be reckoned, no one not even her son, held her back.

Power Ranking: 10

Heather Chandler

ModernGurlz sussed out Heather so well, so I like to look at the film a bit from her point of view from when she was alive.

Picture it: Ohio 1989. You are the Queen Bee of your high school with three loyal underlings who do your bidding, even humiliating the school fat girl. You act like you are better than everyone else but you deep down feel insecure, nothing impresses you, the boys are either bores or objectify you, so you hit a college party hoping to find a mature option. Big Mistake, as he coerces you into oral sex while you are really wanting to go back to the party. You then stare at your reflection in self-hatred and then the next morning you wake up in a hangover and your friend, who you feel screwed you over for fighting back with her own college hook-up is with the school weirdo. You drink their hangover cure and it’s disgusting and what?

You have entered the afterlife and it’s so boring.

Power Ranking: 0

Louise Belcher

The #girlboss of the Belcher Clan, her late grandmother’s granddaughter, the one who solved a murder and saved everyone from an explosion involving flammable teddy bears in a slow-moving ride. Owner of her grandmother’s pink cap turned bunny hat.

Power Ranking: 10

Lisa Simpson

The long-running The Simpsons is a subversive take on classic family sitcom tropes and American Traditionalist “family values”, where the straight A and principled Lisa Simpson is often clad in a light pink and puff-sleeved dress with a classic party dress design. American Christian Tradition and Values writ in fabric: but Lisa subverts these values by staying true to her moral compass and often that means pissing off the social order.

In this case it’s clearing her brother Bart’s name after he was framed as a thief during collection, the truth is he fell for the sweet looking and pretty preacher’s daughter’s manipulations who tells him no one will believe him because Springfield is classist and elitist like many small-towns (there I said it). Lisa takes the pulpit to urge people to confess their sins, no takers from Jessica Lovejoy so Lisa points her out and the town sees that Jessica kept several weeks of collection money under her bed, a cry for help to her parents who care more about looking right than being good parents.

Power Ranking: 11

#pink #Lisa Simpson #women in media #louise belcher #monica lewinsky #pink ranger #mei lee #eleanor wong #joyce prigger #julia child #heather chandler #robin buckley #kamala nandiawanda #nalini vishwakumar #the proud family #costume analysis #fashion analysis #the simpsons #suga mama

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quotesiread · 4 months

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#julia gillard #ngozi okonjo iweala #women and leadership #Joyce Banda #Malawi #domestic abuse

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what-marsha-eats · 1 year

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Links to two of Joyce Chen's vintage recipes are in the article.

#joyce chen #julia child #maryann esposito #lidia bastianich #martha stewart #celebrity chefs #female celebrity chefs

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caridinscross · 1 year

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one of my favourite things about watching tv with my boyfriend is he makes very good points about the show and does good analysis but also he does not remember anyone's name ever

#julia joyce... citra...

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neweramuseum · 2 years

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NEM Submissions May 2022 - curator Jane Schultz.

FEATURED WORKS BY: Susie Leff, Laurence Brugerie, Peter Wilkin, Deborah Kleven Morbeto, Joyce Campbell, Anneliese Wi, Deb Field, Mark Gentry, Vicki Cooper, Cindy Karp, Julia Badakhshan, Janis Brandenburg Lee.

#Jane Schultz #Susie Leff #Laurence Brugerie #Peter Wilkin #Deborah Kleven Morbeto #Joyce Campbell #Anneliese Wi #Deb Field #Mark L. Gentry #Vicki Cooper #Cindy Karp #Julia Badakhshan #Janis Brandenburg Lee

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philipkindreddickhead · 11 days

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100 Fiction Books to Read Before You Die

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

The Book of Margery Kempe by Margery Kempe

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Sparks

The Girl by Meridel Le Sueur

The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

Veronica by Mary Gaitskill

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

Kindred by Octavia Butler

Middlemarch by George Eliot

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Passing by Nella Larson

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather

Play it as it Lays by Joan Didion

The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende

Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

White Teeth by Zadie Smith

The Power by Naomi Alderman

The Street by Ann Petry

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskill

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

Small Island by Andrea Levy

The Idiot by Elif Batuman

The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton

The Price of Salt/Carol by Patricia Highsmith

Room by Emma Donoghue

The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch

Garden of Earthly Delights by Joyce Carol Oates

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

Wise Blood by Flannery O Conner

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsey

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

The Awakening by Kate Chopin

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall

House of Incest by Anaïs Nin

The Mandarins by Simone de Beauvoir

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

Corregidora by Gayl Jones

Whose Names are Unknown by Sanora Babb

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

See Now Then by Jamaica Kincaid

The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri

Beloved by Toni Morrison

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

My Antonia by Willa Cather

Democracy by Joan Didion

Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates

The Violent Bear it Away by Flannery O Connor

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

I Must Betray You be Ruta Sepetys

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

The Mare by Mary Gaitskill

City of Beasts by Isabel Allende

Fledgling by Octavia Butler

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin

The First Bad Man by Miranda July

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Moses, Man of the Mountain by Zora Neale Hurston

Disobedience by Naomi Alderman

Quicksand by Nella Larsen

The Narrows by Ann Petry

The Blood of Others by Simone de Beauvoir

Under the Sea by Rachel Carson

Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee

Under the Net by Iris Murdoch

The Birdcatcher by Gayl Jones

Desert of the Heart by Jane Rule

In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez

The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa

@gaydalf @kishipurrun @unsentimentaltranslator @algolagniaa @stariduks @hippodamoi

#fiction #100 books to read before you die

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theghostparty · 3 months

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Roméo et Juliette: de la Haine à l'Amour - Redesign - 2024

If you missed part one with Roméo and Juliette, click here. Once again, long design explanation.

When designing Mercutio specifically, I turned very explicitly inwards in my belief that Mercutio is not a Montague and should not be tied to the Montagues solely. Furthermore, Mercutio has FAMILY--he's the Prince's cousin and if we want to get really semantic about it, he also has a brother, Valentine.

All this being said, in designing Mercutio, I needed to tie him to Le Prince (Escalus) and I did that mostly in dictating that these are the characters who are allowed to wear black, mostly black leather. It's a distinction that goes mostly unnoticed until its pointed out, but no other designs incorporate deep black tones. There's also this strong, olive green tone that borrows from the Montague palette and gold hardware that borrows from the Capulet palette. The Prince's family gets to straddle the line between both worlds.

I thought very texturally for the Montagues and Capulets, so in trying to give the Prince's family something distinct, I landed on this brushstroke texture to give all the leather and denim pieces a custom feeling.

In his Les Rois du Monde look (his base look--I imagine this explicitly directorial choice to have him and the Prince enter together at the top of Vérone and have Mercutio break away to join the Montagues), there is hints of this painterly texture in blue as opposed to the gold of the Prince. I wanted to feel like every alignment Mercutio has with the Montague family is an active choice on his part. I imagine him painted those swaths of blue himself. His trousers are a bleached faded, torn denim.

We see the true royal gold in Le Bal, like, I think it's just funny to think Mercutio already owned these trousers and said "Fuck it" and wore them to dress up in. His look is explicitly jester themed. It's a little bit "Earring Magic Ken Doll" coded, which delights me to no end.

This is also a good place to point out how fixated I became on closure methods in garments. In Roméo's initial design, there is a strong focus on zippers, Le Prince's jacket is held together with gold hook and eye tape at all the seams, and with Mercutio it's all about lacing.

Part of this is in reference to the explicitly gendered ideas around corsetry and playing with that in tandem with Mercutio's generally accepted queer readings. It's also an interesting metaphor to think about being bound--by duty, by honour, by friendship, by tradition--something that Mercutio is so explicitly caught in between in the Montague-Capulet feud.

His final look during Le Duel, is a take on a Jean Paul Gautier design, and is the most partisan look for Mercutio. Doffing his jacket exposes this soft satin and coutil corset top in the faintest hint of blue. A soft underbelly of allegiance that would take to stage blood SO well (and would make who ever was dressing and laundering this show absolutely hate me as a designer, but I digress).

I also think it makes him a nice mirror to Tybalt, who's overarching design element is gold chains.

Tybalt's design is wholly referential to Mark Seibert's Tybalt. Is it because I can never get that little gold and red cropped jacket out of my brain? Perhaps. But I also like to think that design for Tybalt acts as a reflection of Mercutio. The inherent softness assigned to the Capulet family's design (silks, velvets, chiffons) plays really nicely with how much machismo is implied in Tybalt's characterization.

During Vérone, we see him in a half doublet, likely of a low-pile velvet, a satin faced silk period shirt open in an absolutely impractical way, and a floral print denim trouser. I also gave him a little cuban-heeled boot. For fashion.

Tybalt is a good place to also point out that weapons are very intentionally placed in and out of scenes. Mercutio always has a dagger. Roméo leaves his behind during Aimer. Benvolio does not carry one. Tybalt has an ornately sheathed sword. There is this undercurrent of violence for these characters that is dressed up and dressed down, but persists.

In Le Bal, I really leant into the idea of chainmail for this character, in keeping with the concept of chivalry and Arthurian influences. There's a little bit of royal purple thrown in there for good measure as well as a jaw-bone mask that, at best, is foreshadowing and, at its shallowest, looks cool as hell.

During Le Duel, I wanted to strip our fighters down to exposed skin. A lot of this is to do with one of my favourite versions of this scene, Zeffirelli's 1968 Romeo and Juliet. What I love about the sequence is how it devolves from nobel duel to outright brawl--from a distance to something very close and personal. It's the type of step by step tension-building that I really enjoy: where there are moments (when they're just shouting words back at forth, when they're drawing their weapons, when Mercutio would doff his jacket, when Tybalt doffs his doublet) when the fight could have de-escalated. When they could have walked away. But of course, it's not the play if they do.

I just imagine seeing Mark Seibert and Bereczki Zoltán fight would be fun, ultimately.

And now onto Benvolio. I fixated on paring down his looks, and quite frankly, if it weren't for how much I enjoy his little twink clubbing outfit, I would have probably only given him one costume. My justification for this is that Benvolio gets to live. Ostensibly, he has a lifetime past this play of changing to do. I feel very strongly about the idea of Benvolio as a narrator, Benvolio as a passive presence that is forced to become active. He's not certain in the same way that Roméo and Mercutio are about love and hate. He literally spends a whole song stagnating and waffling on how the hell he's going to tell his cousin that his wife is dead. He runs around following their impulses, patching over their problems. I have a lot of feelings about Benvolio as a character.

He's really the softest of the Montague characters in textures: his doublet is torn and slashed denim, his shirt is some sort of billowy linen blend. He has a little bit of metal flair in the form of this thigh adornment, but really he's quite simple--and my comparison to Roméo and Mercutio, he's quite warm. That hint of magenta on Roméo is a full on feature on Benvolio.

I accept any and all slander about my choices for his Le bal look, but by god do I think it's silly and it brings me joy. Suit of armour under ripped green denim, a little navy ribbed singlet with a silver chainmail crop top over it? Lensless silver glasses frames? It makes no real sense, but I stand by my "We're sneaking into the Capulet's ball tonight with very short notice, here's what we can cobble together" reasoning.

#romeo et juliette #romeo es julia #romeo und julia #romeo e giulietta #bereczki zoltan #mark seibert #cyril niccolai #leonardo di minno #retj #resj #joyce draws #retj redesign 2024 #boy oh boy I hope cyril niccolai who literally follows me never sees this post #tw: blood #I wish I could tell my younger self that watched this musical that I did in fact grow up to be a professional designer and this is my job

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loudrats · 4 months

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Loud Rats Book Club 2023

This year the rats became literate!

We suggested a number of books each month and then voted on one to read (somehow Fish managed to read all 12 of them… wild!). The ones in red are the winners, but there are some other really good books in there.

Hopefully you can find your next favourite read below! :)

January

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson

The Butchering Art by Lindsay Fitzharris

Earthlings by Sayaka Murata

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk

Why Fish Don't Exist by Lulu Miller

The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Tolstoy

Fledgling by Octavia Butler

Pirates and Prejudice by Kara Louise

If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin

February

Adua by Igiaba Scego

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters

The Passion by Jeanette Winterson

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey

March

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

The Humans by Matt Haig

Cane by Jean Toomer

Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa

The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa

The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin (#1 Broken Earth Trilogy)

Young Mungo by Douglas Stewart

April

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrel

Dubliners by James Joyce

The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht

My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake

May

Mary: An Awakening of Terror by Nat Cassidy

No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield

Where You Come From by Saša Stanišić

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Gwen and Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher

June

Death in Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh

Our Hideous Progeny by C. E. McGill

Swimming in the dark by Tomasz Jędrowski

Girls like Girls by Hayley Kiyoko

Diary of a Wimpy Kid 17 by Jeff Kinney

Zami: A New Spelling of my Name by Audre Lorde

Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century by Kim Fu

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

July

Kid Youtuber 9: Everything is Fine by Marcus Emerson, Noah Child

Bored Gay Werewolf by Tony Santorella

Hit Parade Of Tears by Izumi Suzuki

When Death Takes Something from You Give It Back: Carl's Book by Naja Marie Aidt

Pandora's Jar by Natalie Haynes

The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji

The Summer Book by Tove Jansson

Mapping the Interior by Stephan Graham Jones

August

Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle

Small Game by Blair Braverman

Free: Coming of Age at the End of History by Lea Ypi

September

Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood

The Employees: A workplace novel of the 22nd century by Olga Ravn

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

October

Linghun by Ai Jiang

Eyes Guts Throat Bones by Moira Fowley-Doyle

The City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers

The Half Life of Valery K by Natasha Pulley

Catch the Rabbit by Lana Bastašić

Kindred by Octavia Butler

November

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Life For Sale by Yukio Mishima

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

Liberation Day by George Saunders

Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter

Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin

Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin

December

Arsène Lupin versus Herlock Sholmes by Maurice Leblanc

The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien

Minor Detail by Adania Shibli

Prophet Song by Paul Lynch

Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy

#loud rats #book club #to be clear the ones who won weren’t the BEST choice we just love democracy here

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